Daredevil season two shows off final Punisher and Elektra costumes

In case you hadn’t noticed, Deadpool made a lot of money for 20th Century Fox even though it was an R-rated superhero movie that was redoing a character already ruined by studio notes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In response, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers have both indicated they’ll be making more R-rated superhero movies in the future. Marvel Studios took the other path, saying the Marvel Cinematic Universe will remain a PG-13 property. That may seem weird, but that’s only because you haven’t seen Daredevil season two yet.

Hitting Netflix on March 18, the second season of the Marvel beat-em-up superhero show will introduce Frank Castle as The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) former-girlfriend-turned-ninja, Elektra (Elodie Yung). As far as adult-level violence goes, Daredevil had more than any other Marvel property in it’s first season, a slow burn Matt Vs. Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’ONofrio) storyline that saw the devil of Hell’s Kitchen birthed into existence via a series of systematic beatings at the hands of thugs (like The Hand!).

If there was a loud and sudden reaction to Daredevil season one, it was that the entire series was a lead-up to one fully-costumed fight at the climax of the series. Netflix and Marvel television added more black to the traditionally solid red Daredevil suit and a bulky neck piece that covered a great deal of Charlie Cox’s cheeks. Pardon the design nitpick, but this made Daredevil’s costume look more like armor, right down to how his head was overly thick (and not in a good way like Ben Affleck’s new cowl). The eye lenses were a deep red that looked solid black when paired with the dark cinematography of the series.

Here’s the good news about Daredevil season two: they fix the Daredevil costume with a story-based reason. You might have noticed one of the first season two promos from Netflix involved Daredevil in his season one costumed chained to a brick chimney. Note that his headpiece looks to be stitched or glued together.

As we rapidly approach Daredevil’s release and Netflix begins to send out screeners, the promotions for Daredevil have stopped playing it coy about what the season actually entails and the costumes of its main heroes. First, the extended trailer for the second season included mention of The Hand, the supernatural ninja group that is tied closely to Daredevil in the comics. The Hand is an organization that trained the comic book version of Elektra, so their inclusion in a season that debuts that character might have been a moot point. The fun thing is the first Netflix promo shot that included The Hand also showed off the new Daredevil costume, complete with red billy clubs.

The teaser showed Elektra and Daredevil kicking some Yakuza butt while Elektra wore a bandanna (or long turtleneck, it’s hard to tell since the series doesn’t decide to light its second season much brighter than the first). At first that looked like the full extent to which she’d get a costume. Ditto for Frank Castle, who is wearing a coat in some of the promotional footage, but not a black shirt with a skull on it, the defining look of The Punisher.

But, like previously stated, season two is almost upon us and Netflix isn’t being withholding. Today, the official account tweeted a promotional shot of all three characters’ final costumes come season’s end.

This was well-timed with some billboards that went up in Toronto earlier this week and leaked on Reddit mere hours before the official account could tweet that photo. The billboard gives a better look at the new Daredevil costume with a slimmer neck piece and a headpiece that includes more red in the eyes and in the extended horns. It also foreshadows Frank Castle getting a big gun for his costume reveal, which is nice.

We can only say for sure that these will be the final states of Punisher, Elektra, and Daredevil this season because in the preview material released to promote it, Elektra and Castle both have proto-costumes, not what is seen here. We’re all going to have to wait for the full season to be available on March 18 to see how these three suit up and help (and hurt) each other.

But if your worry was The Punisher wasn’t going to look like The Punisher, you can put those fears to bed.